Steiners' Gate: Beyond the Gilded Gates
by WinterSturmAG
Summary: From the future to the past, a lone tank crew must survive the perils of the Second World War as they fight their way to the present, and perhaps change history for the better after a horrific accident leaves them stranded without any support. Forced to come to terms with their predicament, they must survive, and perhaps prosper.
1. Act I: Into the Past For a Better Future

**Steiners' Gate**

**Beyond the Gilded Gates**

_When humanity first emerged from its caves in the dim and distant past, it had no idea that it would eventually become master of the world that it lived in._

_Conquering the world through ingenuity and perseverance, they would eventually create an empire spanning hundreds of thousands of years, stretching all around Earth, and perhaps, beyond._

_The technological prowess brought upon themselves bred brilliant machines of war and peace. Technology that was once used to perpetuate war was retooled for a more peaceful age to enjoy and use._

_Computers, FullDive, The Internet, all of it were once used to further human conquest, and war._

_War. It's violent mark has been felt everywhere, throughout all history and time. The most bloodiest conquest in human history was the desperate struggle between the Allies and the Axis, two powerful giants locked in battle across continents. It brought humanity to the very lowest, with the genocide of the Jewish and the millions of deaths on both sides._

_When the dust finally settled, more than 75 million people were dead. It was, by far, the most bloodiest conflict in Human history. Nothing has ever come close to the level of destruction that the war had left in it's wake before, or since._

_Perhaps it was because it was the defining moment of all of modern history, or because we've all lost something during those dark years, we've all strived to prevent such a horrific thing from ever happening again._

_To this end, we have put our immense resources and effort in a valiant attempt to prevent it from happening, at all costs._

_You are the best of the best, and we expect you to lead the charge in what will perhaps be our finest hour: prevent World War II from occurring._

_Good luck, and may the hands of all those who have come before guide you in this effort._

**- Commander Ryan von Steiner die Heterodyne,**

**Black Forest Armoured Battalion, Experimental Weaponry Division**

Act I

_Into the Past, For a Better Future_

Tuesday, July 18th, 2046

Black Forest Technical Academy, Germany

"So, let's go over it one more time, Alphonse." The brunette sat down next to her commanding officer, who was busy reading something. He looked tired, but Erika knew that that was simply because he was overstressing every single last detail that might go wrong.

He was like that. She mused. Ever since she met him, he was always concerned with the happenings of all the people around him. Maybe that's why he was chosen to be mission leader. Or perhaps it was because of his tactical skill. Who knows, she thought as she opened up her terminal. She didn't notice him looking over her shoulder at the holographic terminal displayed in front of her, eyes rapidly darting from one piece of text to another.

"Right." He replied absently, opening his own holographic terminal. He pushed a few buttons, and he found himself looking at the same stream of data the girl was currently quickly reading. The information was quickly beginning to bore him, as he already knew what the mission was all about. He averted his eyes to look at Erika, the beautiful yet deadly accurate gunner sitting next to him.

"So, it's finally time." Alphonse turned away from his internal musings to look at the people currently standing at the door. It was a tall man, dressed in the same uniform as the other males in the academy. Next to him was an attractive raven-haired girl, with intense golden eyes. Her eyes flicked over to Alphonse, and he smiled back.

"Hey Kay, Erik." Alphonse waves them over with a quick gesture of his hands. He closed the terminal with a practiced flick of the wrist.

"Hey Al. Last minute cramming?" Kay smirked as she saw Alphonse pout.

"C'mon Kay, stop messing with him. He's already strained with him being mission commander." Erik sighed. Kay and Alphonse often bicker with each other, but he knew that both of them were _really _good friends.

If he was being truly honest, both Kay and Alphonse had a _thing_ going on with each other. It's just that they're both too scared to act on their feelings. But nevertheless, Erik (and by extension, probably everyone else, but he dared not to ask) could see them caring for each other immensely.

"Hey, he's always like that. Cramming until the last minute, and yet somehow getting the highest marks in the school." Kay retorted, but her comment had little to no weight, as she was grinning softly.

"I don't cram until the last minute... where the heck have you been hearing that?" Alphonse suddenly turned from talking with Erika, expression deadly serious.

"Oh lord, here we go again..." Erika half mutters, half sighs out as she prepares for some _very_ intense yelling.

Or so she thought. When she raises her head in confusion a couple of seconds later at the lack of verbal battling, she saw Alphonse smiling.

That almost _never_ happens when he's facing off Kay.

"Oh, perhaps a little blue bird told me." Kay nonchalantly says, walking over and sitting down next to Alphonse.

"Anyway, we're really doing this right? This isn't another drill by Steiner, right?" She claps her hands together.

_She seems really ready for this..._ Alphonse thought to himself. Not one to hide any secrets from the people who matter the most to him, he grabs Kay's hands.

"This isn't a drill. We're really doing it. After all this training, we're finally ready." Alphonse stared into her eyes as he said this, watching her expression change from shock to happiness.

"Finally," Kay closes her eyes in satisfaction, "We really got _the _assignment. We did it Al. We all did it."

"Well, in that case, we should get ourselves ready. The notification should be arriving-"

"_Attention Taskforce Four. You are required to proceed to the briefing chamber immediately."_

"-now." Alphonse finishes quickly.

"Well, let's go, then." Kay grabs a hold of Alphonse, and (despite the protests, or because of the protests) drags Alphonse along to the briefing room.

"Well, I guess we should get going as well." Erik and Erika sheepishly look at each other, and follow the desperate cries of their commander.

"Now, I am I understood that you have all read the mission dossier?" Their headmaster, and commanding officer paced around the table, occasionally glancing over at the people gathered here.

"Yes." The room was filled with the sounds of confirmation and nodding heads. He could clearly see the mission commander being pinned down by his driver, and he smiled to himself.

"Schmitt!" He called out. Everyone in the room turned to look at Alphonse and Kay, who both let out a shocked gasp.

"Uh, yes, sir?" came Alphonse's meek reply. Kay, on the other hand, had quickly scrambled off and was in the process of dusting her coat off.

"Just making sure you were paying attention and not flirting with Hofferson." He chuckled, and everyone turned their attention back to the front.

"T-That was close Al..." Kay resumed sitting next to Alphonse, who was idly looking at the screen.

"Yeah..." He trailed off. Seeing Alphonse not really paying attention to her, or to the screen, she decided to look around the room. Only 6 other people were currently sitting in the seats, most of them part of the main combat team that would finally unleash the current of change that was set into place by countless other forays into the past.

"... and that should be it. Any questions?" Their Commanding Officer finished the briefing, and Alphonse suddenly shifted and sat up straight.

"Yes." Came Alphonse's reply.

"Okay then Schmitt, fire away." The other man sat down in his chair.

"What's our task in the mission? Your entire briefing focused on the combat squad taking out the target."

"Right. Your task is to provide fire support as they are extracted." He calmly replied.

"Fire support?" Alphonse was quickly doing some small calculations.

Alphonse stopped. "Fire support for what?" He asked.

"This wasn't listed within the original documents, but we recently discovered at least three platoon strength Panzers within the surrounding area." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Hopefully, we won't need to go to that extent, it's too overt you see, but you and another tank should be enough to cover for the team to escape back to our time." The CO replied.

"So, who's the other tank crew?"

"Yeah." Erika and Kay both said at the same time.

"Alphonse?" a brown haired boy peered through the door, his glasses slightly askew.

"Brian?" Came Alphonse's reply.

"Hey man, how's it going? Long time no see, eh?" Brian laughed and walked over to Alphonse, high fiving him.

"Look at you, commander already." Alphonse eyed the commander epaulets on Brian's shoulders, and laughed.

"Come on, we're all ready Steiner." Brian turned to face their commanding officer.

"Aye, go on, we're pretty much done with the presentation." He waved them all off, exiting the room.

"Okay, let's go. Let's catch up once we're done with this mission, alright?" Brian turned back to Alphonse, a smile plastered on his face.

"Aye, let's go get something to drink after this." Came Alphonse's reply.

"Promise?" Brian's face turned serious.

"Yup, promise." Alphonse chuckled again.

It was a long time since he had seen Brian. He was one of the top students at the academy, having done _extremely _well as a tank commander, and having graduated along with his crew with one of the highest marks in their class.

He was also one of Alphonse's closest friends during their tenure together during their first year. The boyish young man had grown into a capable leader, judging from his higher rank. He also seemed to emit an air of calculating calmness, and approachability.

Perhaps that's the reason why he's so popular with the people he works with. He tends to make friends with anyone he can.

Well, as long has he has his dependable friends with him, this mission should be an easy one. He turned around, looking at his friends laughing along with Erik at some joke that he cracked.

Today so far has been a good day.

"So, how's it going with Kay?" Brian questioned as he kept on walking down the corridor to the garage.

Alphonse spluttered out a few half-hearted replies.

"So I'd imagine it's _not_ going well, is it Al?" Brian chuckled at the other man's apparent blushing. He had known ever since Kay transferred to his class that both Alphonse and Kay had a thing for each other. Just from the way they both tease each other and Alphonse often coming to Kay's defence whenever _anything_ goes wrong seems to just set flags going in his mind.

"W-What are you trying to imply? I haven't set any flags yet you know. At least... I don't think I did." Alphonse defended himself.

"Flags? What's this, a bad romance VN? Al, come on, face your feelings. You know it to be true." Brian smiled. Boy did he miss messing with Alphonse. There was just something that makes teasing him fun.

"Well how was I supposed to put that? I didn't make any moves? Also watch it with your _spectacular_ movie quotes. What's that from, Star Trek?" Alphonse retorted.

"Star Wars, dummy. I thought you knew better." Brian tapped Alphonse on his head lightly.

"Come on... I haven't watched it since... eight months ago?" Alphonse tried to defend himself, to no avail.

Both men traded stories for the rest of the way.

"I'd imagine that you're wondering what tanks we're going to be using for this mission. I really really hope it's the new Leopards that we recently built." Brian turned around as he stopped at the hangar doors.

"Mmm. Finally. Something that resembles real armour." Alphonse was lost in thought.

The thing is, Black Forest didn't have much in the way of armour. It did have some decommissioned Leopard tanks lying around, but nothing in the way of _actual_ combat-ready armour. Most of their training was using the _FullDive_ technology, virtual reality technology allowing hopeful tankers to hone their skills before battling it out in the real world.

Of course, it didn't exactly have the same feeling of actually sitting in the tank with your life on the line. That's why Black Forest has been working hard on securing funds and materials to finally finish their Mass Assembler Arrays.

"So, we're finally here." Erika and the rest of the crew caught up behind them. Alphonse did a quick head count, and nodded to Brian.

"Ready to open the door?" Brian asked the rest of the team.

"Yeah."

"Damn straight we are. Come on Brian, get a move on."

"Okay, let's do it."

"Alright, I'm opening it." Brian entered in the code, and turned the lock.

The door swung open with a loud screech, and the team stepped in one by one.

Having been here many times before, Alphonse didn't react as much as the others, but the sight was still breathtaking. Tank parts of all sizes, of all makes were being assembled by mechanical arms, jostling and turning, assembling great war machines of times long past.

It was beautiful, and he smiled to himself.

"Alright folks, this way." Alphonse and the rest turned their heads to Commander Steiner, who had just arrived through the secondary tunnel entrance. They followed him past the assembly bay, and down into the actual hanger, where the finished and prepared tanks were waiting for combat.

"So, if you're wondering what types of tanks we are using for this mission, don't fret, I'm about to show you." Steiner said as he led the group of eight down catwalk.

"Wow..." Alphonse let out a gasp as the group rounded around the corner.

_It was the Leopards..._ Alphonse thought.

"Impressed, aren't you Schmitt? Well just you wait till you hear of the... shall we say, enhancements to the tanks?" Steiner was feeling proud of himself, and he had a very good reason to as well.

"Well, what are you waiting for Steiner? Go on, tell us." Erika was obviously very excited to hear about what Black Forests' engineers and technicians managed to do to these machines.

"Well, we can start with the armour. Now I understand that out of all of you, Alphonse's group has had the most experience with the Leopard tanks. They know of how weak the armour is. Only 60 millimetres of armour at the front? Well, that can't be helped." He paused, reading everyone's expressions.

"What we did was we used an experimental process that produced a more powerful, durable, strong armour than anything else we have currently. Now I can go into specifics about how the carbon nanotubes intertwined with Terrium crystals bonded to Hardened Aetherium creates exceptionally strong armour, but it's heavy, and it tends to adversely affect the power to weight ratio."

"How we managed to make the armour as light as normal RHA was that we used Mass Relays to super compress the forged metal, making it extremely light as well as durable." Steiner finished with a nod.

"And that's not it as well. Both tanks are equipped with an improved ventilation system, a tank shell rammer, and an improved vertical stabilizer system that allows for better accuracy on the move." He continued talking about the improved power to weight ratio, and how he managed to improve the optics, but Alphonse turned away from the group, and started walking towards the tanks.

He looked at the great machines, and he paused, standing silently.

_The brilliance of humanity has managed to create one of the best weapons of war... but is this the only way that we may express our creativity?_ Alphonse mused. It was a constant question that he constantly asked himself, and it was a question in which he could not find an adequate answer.

He brushed the side of the dormant machine, and sighed.

His father was a brilliant man, but he was a man who was lost a long time ago, commanding the same model of tank as Alphonse is driving today.

"Alphonse, you okay? You seem to be lost in thought." Alphonse turned around and saw Kay and Erika standing behind him.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just lost in thought." Alphonse meekly smiled as he scratched the back of his head.

"Alphonse, now's not the time to get your head up in the clouds." Erika teased him.

"I can't help it, today's the big day, don't you feel at least a little twinge of excitement in your body, Erika?" Alphonse responded. It was a rhetorical question, he saw from her bright demeanour - even more than normal - that she was quite excited for this day.

"I can't help it you know..." She shyly responded, and Alphonse laughed.

Even after all this time knowing each other, Erika was still quite shy whenever Alphonse is talking with her.

Sometimes he wonders if Erika likes him as well.

_This isn't some sort of VN, I hope you realize that._ He thought to himself.

"Anyway," He began, "What should we name this tank?" He asked Kay and Erika.

"Well... I have some ideas." Erik says as he walks over to the group.

"Well, lay them out then."

"The best name I can come up with would be the Valkyrie." Erik responded.

"The _Valkyrie_?" Everyone asked.

"It was the codename for _Operation Valkyrie_, the operation that would remove Hitler from power in Nazi Germany. I guess I found it fitting that we're doing exactly that to the timeline." He answered.

_That's exactly what my dad called his tank... _Alphonse thought in his mind. He pushed that gloomy thought out of his mind.

"Alright then, the _Valkyrie _it is then." Alphonse declared. Everyone's heads nodded, and Steiner walked over.

"What's what, then?" He asked.

"Well, we've decided to name this tank the _Valkyrie._" Erik responded.

"The _Valkyrie, _eh? Well, we can arrange that. Now I want to ask what camo pattern you would like to add to this tank, as this is going to be your own tank for the rest of your career here at Black Forest." He said.

"Wait, so you're saying..." Alphonse couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes, this tank is yours." Steiner finished for him, chuckling.

"Well... thank you Steiner." Erika smiled and thanked him.

"Hey, nothing like a small present to the highest performing student here at Black Forest." He shooed it off like it was nothing.

"Alright, are we ready?" Brian walked over with the rest of his crew.

"Yeah, are you?" Alphonse declared.

"Damn straight we are." Brian nodded his head, and walked off with the rest of his crew.

"All parameters check, we are ready for FTL drive actuators to begin their spooling." Steiner said over the intercom, flicking switches and checking screens.

The huge gate starts humming as terrawatts of energy began to flow into its Aetherium core. The smaller inner gate began to spin, energy collecting, equations running their course.

Alphonse ducked into the tank's turret, looking over his crew. Erika was doing her final check on the recently upgraded targetting computers, Erik was loading a HEAP shell into the gun, and Kay was silently humming.

_Well, we're doing fine right now. All that's left is to activate the AetherGate and we'll begin phase one._ Alphonse thought.

Ah, the AetherGate. One of Humanity's greatest discoveries and technologies. By warping the quantum fabric of time and space, Humanity can travel anywhere in time and space.

This is actually one of Steiner's inventions, as the great field commander of their school is not only a brilliant tactician and teacher, but also an amazing engineer.

Alphonse often silently thought that the man was some sort of omnidisciplinary scientist, or much, _much _ older than what his outward appearance might suggest.

Regardless, they were starting in 30 seconds.

The inside gate had reached its maximum speed, and a faint ripple began to manifest within the gate. It grew brighter and brighter, until Alphonse had to turn away from its intense light. Small sparks shot out of the gate, but it was nothing unusual; the gate always shot out sparks when in operation.

"20 seconds to launch, please be sure that all your equipment is ready for combat! We cannot anticipate what's going to be on the other side, so be prepared for the worst!" Steiner yelled into the intercom, the whining of turbines and machinery deafening out his voice.

"10 seconds... standby for event horizon stabilization!"

"Ready for this?" Kay asked from her driver position over the tank's intercom.

Alphonse smiled, and closed the hatch, silencing the deafening roar of sound outside.

"I was born ready."

"Gate is ready, you have 90 seconds to get through the gate, go go go!" Steiner said as he pulled the 'Activate' lever, sending a pulse of pure energy through the room. The Aetherium reactor stabilized with a whirr, and the event horizon coalesced into an infinite tunnel into the past and future.

Alphonse lurched back into his seat as Kay propelled the tank forward towards the gate.

"Here... we go." Kay whispered under her breath as she drove the _Valkyrie _into the infinite schism of infinite temporal energy.

The tank shuddered, and everything went dark.


	2. Act II: All Along the Battlefield

Act II

_All Along the Battlefield_

Saturday, May 28th 1938

Unknown Location Parameters

Alphonse gritted his teeth.

While he and everyone else on this mission had read and studied the effects of FTL Tunneling on the human body, he still wasn't prepared for the side effects.

Nausea, Vertigo, Concussions.

"Sitrep." He called out to no one in particular. It was a habit, drilled into his head whenever he found himself incapacitated.

_If you're incapacitated and you have just been revived, order a sitrrep so that you can get an idea of what the hell just happened._ A voice rang into his head.

"We're here, mostly anyway." Erika's voice rang out, almost like she was far away. Alphonse turned and saw Erika sitting in the gunner's chair.

"Mostly?" Alphonse asked. _That didn't sound good._

"Yeah, we made it through the portal but it suffered a malfunction. The tech guys are on it, trying to fix it on the other end. Right now, what we need to do is to figure out who made it and who didn't." Erika replied, shaking her head.

"What I do know is roughly half of the force made it through the portal before it forcibly closed on this end." Erika continued.

"What made it through?" Alphonse looked around.

"Well, we got Brian's tank crew, and the remnants of the task force sent here to carry out the dirty work." Erika answered, tapping her terminal absently.

"Well, we got to make do with what we have. Now, you said that it closed on this end, did you know what-"

"Like I said, I don't know. Sorry Al, but I honestly don't know." Erika interrupted.

"You don't know... okay. Well, what happened to the other half?" Alphonse continued.

"They're back in the present time. The gate closed as soon as us two tanks and the first half of the task force made it through. If you want to have a look at the gate, you're more than welcome. Everyone else is setting up camp."

"Well, I'll see you later then Erika."

Alphonse pulled himself out of the cupola, and promptly fell down into the ground.

"God damnit..." Alphonse muttered to himself.

Propping himself up, he slowly regained his footing and walked, albeit unsteadily towards the camp.

"So anyway, you're not sure if we can do this mission?" Kay asked Tobias, the captain of the joint task force.

"Well, we're not quite sure. We can do this mission, but pulling it off without attracting attention is asking for a little too much." He replied.

"How so?"

"Well, first things first we lost our Active Camo unit, so we would probably have to tough it out during nighttime. Not my ideal choice, but we've got no backup, no plans, or anything resembling a time machine... other than the busted exit portal."

"So, we're stuck here, am I correct?" Kay asked.

"Well, I'll go check on the progress of the warp portal. If we can get it up and running again, I'll let you know." Tobias sighed, exiting the building and leaving Kay by herself.

_Stranded out of time and out of space, eh? Well, not the ideal way I'd wanted to spend the rest of my life. _Kay thought.

"Kay?" Kay perked her head up.

"What's wrong?" Alphonse sat down next to her, his black greatcoat brushing gently against her arm.

"It's just..." Kay choked back tears, trying to keep her composure so that at least she can tell him their likely fate.

"We're going to be stranded here... out of time, out of place, in Nazi Germany."

"Oh..." Alphonse was left speechless.

"Alphonse. We have to survive. It's our last hope... maybe Black Forest... the new one I mean, might send a time machine back to take us back." Kay looked at Alphonse, who was silently looking at the ground.

"It's just... I knew, if there was going to be any problems with the AetherGate, it would be today." Alphonse sighed.

"Why today?" Kay asked him.

Alphonse looked up at Kay, his golden eyes lost in memory.

"Today was the day my father disappeared into the Slip, never to be seen again."

And with that, Alphonse pulled himself up, and walked out of the building, leaving Kay all by herself.

"What's the slip?" Kay asked Erika, who was busy eating food with the rest of the members of the squadron.

Erika cleared her throat.

"I think the best person to ask would be Alphonse. He was the one who figured out the mystery of it after all." Erika replied.

Night had fallen, and Alphonse was still nowhere to be seen. His crew members worried what he might do, since he had left mysteriously and with all his weapons, swords and all.

"Well, he isn't here right now, so we might as well find him." Kay said.

"We don't know where he is, even if we did I don't think that he would like us disturbing him right now."

"That's true..." Kay slumped back into her seat.

"Don't worry." Erik patted Kay on her back.

"I'm sure that he can handle himself. Stop worrying about him so much." Erik said.

"He's so... distant at times. He acts like he has the burden of the entire world on his shoulders, and... and he's so broken, I know it. The look in his eyes, his constant nightmares... he hasn't had any soul care for him in his entire life, and it hurts him, I know.

He might try to act like it doesn't hurt... but I can tell it does. Losing your father... no wonder he found out the existence of the Slip at such a young age... with something like that motivating you... you can accomplish many great things in your life."

Kay shuddered. She felt a few bitter tears stream down her face.

"Why... Why doesn't he tell us about what happened? He acts like a distant god, watching over the rest of humanity... A broken god of Time, the last of them all." She finished, sobbing quietly.

"A broken Lord of Time, who is the last of his kind and so very alone."

"Alphonse?" Kay looked up to see a very tired Alphonse.

"Aye." He said flatly.

"W... Why did you leave like that?" Kay asked him as she pulled him into a hug.

"I-We were worried about you." Alphonse caught onto her small slip, but it didn't seem like anyone else noticed.

"I was looking for answers." Alphonse replied.

"Answers... To what?" Erika asked.

"To the greatest mystery of them all. Why we're stuck here." Alphonse sat down, pulling down Kay with him.

"Now this will be a long one, so get a seat and get something to drink. I know that all of you are wondering why I left so suddenly, so I'll tell you right now."

"I'm not Human, as you can probably tell from my eye colour."

"But it's a possible eye colour, and we just assumed that you had them done surgically." Erik cut in.

"What, I'm not that vain, am I?" Alphonse laughed.

"Anyway, yes. I'm not human. I'm a Titan, an Aetherian, a master of time and space. I am the last of my kind, both as a Titan and as an Aetherian. My entire race was wiped out millenia ago, and I was stuck on Earth without any hope or cause. My father, who had joined the Black Forest Technical Academy as an advisor, became close friends with Commander Steiner and gave him the technology of the AetherGate."

"So it wasn't Steiner who developed it... he lied to everyone." Kay finally had calmed down enough.

"Well, it wasn't a big lie, he did help out a lot with making the tech work with the materials we had at the time."

"Besides, Steiner was a genius. He was the first person to figure out that my father wasn't human. And he didn't even tell him before!

So him and my father worked on making the AetherGate happen, and he eventually revealed something else: We are not natives of this time stream."

"I'm sorry, what? You lost me at the Time Stream part." Erika said.

"The Time Stream, the Aether Plane, whatever you want to call it. The Aether Plane is the superstructure of the entire universe, it's a universe containing all the different universes, if you will.

My dad and I are not from this Universe, or this version of the Aether Plane. Now the Aether Plane, along with all the universes, can be changed and altered if there is enough changes made. Sort of like how a river's course can be changed if you put enough small changes into effect, or one big one, like a dam.

What happened is that one big change completely rewritten the entire Aether Plane, sending us spiralling into this one, Crucible Omega. We're still not sure what caused the change, but we're still working on that."

"Now how this is all linked is that my father had tried to do a jump back to our home universe using the old set of coordinates. I'm not sure if it worked or not." Alphonse added quietly.

"Anyway... it was on July 18 that he made the jump... now every year ever since my father disappeared into the slip... he kept watching the gate, waiting for his return.

He always said that there were some... interference whenever the gate was powered up on that day, but he said that it was always in operational parameters. Nothing too major, he always said."

"Interference? Like what?" Erik asked.

"Well... most of the stuff that happened would probably go over your head." Alphonse smiled uneasily when he saw Erik narrow his eyes.

"I could describe it to you though. It's like ripples, data ripples from the other side. Now you have to understand that everything that passes through the gate is data, whether its organic like a human body, or inorganic like a tank. It's converted into streams of data that the gate can read, transported through a subspace tunnel, and converted again into matter on the other side.

There is a limitation however. The gate can only process completed data as a safeguard, and if the data is not complete or is corrupted, the gate will not permit travel to the other side. God knows what would happen if the corrupted data is reconstructed." Alphonse shuddered at that thought.

"So the data ripples are sort of like completed data that can't pass through for whatever reason. I've been working hard on a way to see at least what the data is, but I've had no luck so far."

"A-Anyway. I figure it's a lost cause. My dad's notes haven't been the best of aids, and... well I can't figure it out. It stumped me, as much as the reason why the gate suddenly decided to close up on us."

Alphonse pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, exhausted.

"Al... Well... Wow." Erik said.

"Wow, what?" Alphonse asked, eyes still closed.

"That you've had a pretty damn messed up life." Erik replied.

"Yeah, nothing too bad though. Anyway, you guys make up for it." Alphonse laughed.

"True, true." Erika smiled.

"Anyway, so you don't know why the gate closed up on us?"

"Not a single clue Kay. Well, I have some good guesses on why it closed, but other than that I don't have a definitive answer." Alphonse replied.

"Well, tell us the most likely reason why it bit the dust Al."

"Right... Where should I begin...?" Alphonse muttered.

"From the beginning?" Erik sarcastically asked.

"Well, if you want to sit here for two hours while I ramble on about Wave Theory, I can do that. But if you want the clear cut answer it's this. There was a massive energy spike and a warning that the Divergence Ratio was changing to some unknown ratio. I only got half of it before the line cut." Alphonse explained. He pulled out a sheet of paper.

"Divergence change? That... That never happens. Well it should happen in theory with every single small change we make, but not while we're in transit... right?" Erika added with a slight hint of fear in her voice.

"I don't know..." Alphonse sighed. "There's so much we don't know about the Aethergate tech... the real whiz was my father. If you can somehow get him out of wherever the heck he is please do so, because I'm utterly lost."

"Divergence ratio... you mean the energy values changed?" Erik was astonished as much as the rest of the team.

"The Divergence Ratio Theory says that specific energy values can change the outcome of events. Energy values such as Rho, Tau and Sigma have to be in a specific order so that we can get a 'perfect' universe. Now the closest we have gotten was 99 rho, 288 tau and 166 sigma." Kay explained.

"Yeah but how does that help us?" Erika asked.

"Well, we can make some sense of what happened by looking at the readout and figuring out what happened." Kay opened her holo-terminal.

"Al, where did you get the readout?" Erika looked up from the terminal at Alphonse.

"Here, let me access it for you." Alphonse moved closer to Kay, almost touching each other.

"Here, let me just input the code..." Alphonse rapidly typed in the code and pressed enter.

"That was fast." Kay muttered.

"Okay, here." Alphonse pulled up the window.

"See? Right there, that's the readout for the divergence ratio before the pulse of energy, and immediately after." Alphonse pointed at the two numbers, and zoomed in closer.

"Yeah you're right... they're cut off. Well the new one anyway, the last one before we left is still- wait a second." Erika paused, reading over the numbers again.

"Alphonse, did you record a change in the Divergence recently?" Erika asked Alphonse, who turned on his terminal to check.

_If I'm right... then we're in big trouble._ Erika thought to herself, a gut feeling in her chest telling her that she was probably right.

"Yeah, recent divergence change detected on Friday, July 7th 2046... 13:52, new divergence readings are as follows..." Alphonse continued to read, unaware of the growing unease around him.

"266:193:112. Measured change: +167:-95:-52. Divergence Currently Shifting due to events underlined..."

"What was the event?" Erik asked.

"Not sure... it doesn't specify, but that's normal for little changes..." Alphonse trailed off, a full realization finally slamming into him with the force of a 60 tonne tank.

"But this... this is a big one... Whatever happened, BFTA doesn't know about it, and we got to find out." Alphonse breathed out.

"Everyone, I would like to have your attention for a couple of minutes!" Alphonse's voice boomed over the din of eating and conversations. Almost immediately the entire tent went silent.

"As you know, we have had a malfunction with the gate system. Regardless, we have to complete our mission to ensure that our future will be a better one.

We will prevail people. I know it. We're doing this for the sake of humanity. We have to keep on pushing forward, even if things are looking bleak. Victory, shall be ours."

"Now, we have to figure out logistics. Since we're basically cut off from BFTA, we have to make do with what we have. We have a basic mass assemblier array, but we don't have any power to start it. Food and other supplies are high, but ammunition will be a problem in the forseeable future." Alphonse continued, mentally logging every single thing he will have to look after.

"There are a couple of towns in the area. Keep a low profile and see what they might have."

"In the meantime, any members of the engineering detachment who are free and available at this moment, please come with me. That is all."

"Okay, stay calm." Erika told Kay. It was morning now, and the camp was a buzz with activity. Alphonse had stayed up all night working on a fix to the AetherGate, with no major progress. Erika had found him asleep on a worktable, his notebook opened in front of him.

He briefly awoke to give some more instructions, before collapsing again, unconscious.

"Yeah... try telling me that outside of a tank." Kay weakly said back.

Alphonse had told them that he recently found out that the area that they were currently stranded in was the future site of BFTA. Since only the two girls plus Erik know the truth about where Alphonse really came from, he told them to go out into the nearby town to perhaps find an earlier version of Steiner.

Since Steiner had quite the workshop back then, Alphonse hopes that he can at least get him on his side, and with his intellect, he should have the gate fixed in no time.

So here they were on the outskirts of the town, alone.

"Honestly, it's fine. We both can protect ourselves, and honestly, it's daytime, who would ever dare assault a person in daytime?" Erika tried to reassure Kay.

"Well..."

Erika could see this wasn't working.

"Fine, let's not think of that. Just... be focused and I'll handle the talking."

"Okay..." Erika grabbed the shorter girl's hand, eliciting a surprised yelp from her.

"Come on, let's go!" Erika said excitedly as she pulled her along.

"**ERROR: INPUTTED DIVERGENCE VALUES CANNOT BE DIALED. PLEASE INPUT A VALID SET OF VALUES."**

"Damnit..." Alphonse swore under his breath. One hundred and fifth time today.

"Any luck?" Alphonse cocked his head towards Erik, who was working on the opposite terminal in front of him.

"Nope, no luck..." Alphonse sighed and leaned into his chair.

"Well, why don't we take a break. You've been working on that for the past... seven hours." Erik checked his watch to make sure.

"Well, if I stop, then I might lose that one brilliant idea I might have when I'm eating." Alphonse replied. He shook his head.

_What am I saying, I need to take a break... my head's spinning..._ Alphonse slowly got up from the chair and walked over to Erik's terminal.

"Nevermind, let's take a break." Alphonse said to Erik as he then walked to the exit.

"Wait. Alphonse." Erik called him back.

"Yeah?"

"Look... Do you think, honestly, that we have a chance to get back?"

"I don't know... I really don't. Yes, but no is probably the right answer." Alphonse scratched the back of his head.

"If we complete our job here, perhaps whatever is going on over there, may it be flux or something else breaking the connection, will go away and we can go back. The timeline is probably in flux right now because we're not doing anything, so we either killed the Nazi Party or we didn't. It can't choose both."

"Sort of like Schrodinger's Cat then, a state of superposition extended to an entire timeline..." Erik sighed.

"Well, in theory that's the case, but since we're trying to dial from a very early point in the divergence, we probably can't connect because we're not locked onto a particular timeline. We're on both, near the edge of a branch off if you will. That's probably why we can't dial." Alphonse explained.

"So we have to continue with our mission... and then we can dial?" Erik asked.

"Yes, pretty much."

"Has this event ever happened before? Did BFTA ever record something like this ever happening to a team?" Erik suddenly asked.

"It would happen, but not in transit." Alphonse looked away from Erik and at the terminal, and the gate outside.

"We have failsafes in order to prevent dialing if the timeline is as unstable as it is right now... I would clue in sabotage, but I can't say for sure..." Alphonse said.

"Well, I suppose we'll find out once we get out of here and finish the mission, eh Al?" Erik looked at the Last of the Titans.

"Yes... I suppose we will."

"Lieutenant Schmitt, we have an unknown entity near grid A6... Looks like an AFV but it's pretty small. I don't have a good silhouette. Please come down here immediately." Tobias said over the intercom.

"Copy that, will investigate immediately." Alphonse replied, then gestured to Erik.

"I wonder what it could be..." Erik said to Alphonse as they both ran out of the building.

"Well, it could be one of two things. One, The Panzergruppe found us, and now they're sending out a scouting party. Or two, that's somehow one of ours that managed to veer off course." Alphonse replied. They went round a corner and into the makeshift hangar, where the _Valkyrie_ and all the other vehicles are stored.

"What if it's neither?" Erik asked Alphonse.

"Then... Then we figure out how to deal with it." Alphonse looked at Erik.

"Now, can you drive?" Erik looked at the tank in surprise.

"Yeah... I can probably drive. The mechanism is simple, right?" Erik looked uncertainly at the tank.

"Yeah, it is. Just a steering wheel and two pedals. And a lever." Alphonse looked at Erik.

"Come on, let's go."

"Tobias come in, do you still have a lock on the target?" Alphonse radioed in.

"No sir, no lock at all."

They were speeding towards the last known position of the mysterious tank. While Erik was driving - rather well if you ask Alphonse himself - Alphonse was looking out of the commander's hatch, scanning the terrain as they raced across the German countryside.

"DRADIS?" Erik asked Alphonse.

"Nothing showing up on DRADIS, except for the usual... hang on." Alphonse narrowed at the screen.

"Erik, stop." Alphonse commanded.

"Roger."

The Leopard came to a stop in front of a small hill.

"The dirt mound looks recent... let me just adjust the intensity of the DRADIS scan." Alphonse looked at the displaced ground in front of him, then turned towards the computer. Switching to Short-Range mode, the computer whirred as it adjusted the magnetic field.

"Yeah... picking up something alright. It's right on the edge of DRADIS though, so I can't get a cl-"

Alphonse was cut short when a loud beep emanated from the computer.

"D... DRADIS Contact! Direction North North-East, Range 700 meters, Distance... 400 meters!"

"What?" Erik opened the driver's hatch and scanned the area. Nothing out of the ordinary... except for another mound of dirt.

"Al, you might want to traverse the turret by about 38 degrees, DRADIS is probably getting a ping from there."

"Do you know what the contact is?" Alphonse asked back.

"No idea... It's another mound of dirt... but I don't see anything behind it- Wait."

Erik could faintly make out the glare coming off something metallic... along with a tank barrel.

"It's a tank. I think it's a TD but it's not firing at us."

"What?" Alphonse zoomed in using the gunsights. He saw nothing... until he saw the gun barrel move, ever so slightly.

"It's a tank alright... I'll see if Toby can get a good lock on it now that we know where it is." Alphonse turned around and radioed Tobias.

"What I don't get... is why it's not firing at us..." Erik whispered.

Erik took out his binoculars.

"Um.. Alphonse... you might want to take a look at the tank." Erik climbed out of his position and handed Alphonse his binoculars.

"Yeah, doing that right now..."

Looking at the tank, he suddenly realized what exactly the type of tank it is.

"It's a Main Battle Tank... of the Swedish Army? What's it doing here?" Alphonse asked Erik.

"Well, it doesn't seem to be firing at us, and it's starting to move..." Erik pointed at the rapidly shifting mound of dirt.

"Well, let's just see how they greet us." Alphonse passed back the binocs, and got back into the tank.

"Drive out and greet them." Alphonse instructed, and Erik put the tank in motion.

"Wait. They're coming to us. Alphonse do you want to stop?" Erik looked at the rapidly approaching tank on his periscope.

"Yes, stop." Alphonse lurched forward in his seat as Erik brought the _Valkyrie _to a full stop.

The Main Battle Tank - Alphonse could see that it was a Stridvagn 103D - stopped in front of them as well.

Suddenly, the commander's hatch opened, and Alphonse couldn't believe what he saw.

"No time no see, eh Alphonse?"

Ryan von Steiner, the tankery engineer and the future commander of Black Forest Tankery Academy, was across from him, sitting in a Stridvagn 103D, with Erika and Kay.

Alphonse was lost for words.

"R-Ryan?" Alphonse couldn't believe his eyes.

"Surprised, Alphonse?" Erika asked him, and Kay laughed.

"You have no idea..." Alphonse pulled himself out of the tank, and walked over to Ryan.

**A Few Hours Earlier...**

"Erika... um... Are you sure you know where you are going?" Kay looked around her, shaking slightly from fear.

"Don't worry Kay, I got this handled." Erika reassured the blonde, and she walked down into the center of the town, where a large fountain took up the center. Children were playing in the center of the small park around the fountain, splashing and playing games.

Their fathers and mothers watched on, and the entire town was full of merryment and happiness.

Erika herself couldn't believe that in a few years time, Europe would again be plunged into the deepest darkest parts of hell itself, as it became a Battlefield on Earth.

"What's wrong Erika?" Kay looked at the taller girl.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong." Erika quickly said, and started walking again towards her destination.

"Forgive me for asking Erika, but where exactly are we going?" Kay asked Erika, looking around again at the hustle and bustle of the morning.

"I know this isn't exactly the plan, but I intend to get Alphonse a much needed ally." Erika explained.

"Who? Wait... you're going to... his house?" Erika simply nodded.

"What! No! That... that would create something horrible... like... like a paradox, or something! You just can't go waltzing into his house and say 'Oh hi Past Alphonse, Past Alphonse's dad, we need your help because Alphonse's future self is stranded in the middle of nowhere and he can't get back... that would cause a paradox of epic proportions! Somehow... or something even worse!" Kay panicked.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to interact with Alphonse or Alphonse's dad. Who I am going to interact with is Commander Steiner, who might have an idea or two to fix the AetherGate." Erika said.

"Well... isn't that the same thing?" Kay asked again.

"No... not exactly."

"How so?"

"Because this event already happened in the timeline where we came from. Steiner had told me one day that a future version of me showed up on this day... so I'm betting on the fact that since it already happened, Steiner would probably be able to help the same way he did back in our original timeline." Erika told Kay.

"Ah... so since it already happened... then we would be fine. Oh thank god." Kay breathed out a sigh of relief.

"And we're here." Erika announced, stopping in front of a great oak door.

She looked around, but she could not see a knocker anywhere, so she rapped the door four times in rapid succession.

"H-Hold on! I'm coming, just give me a minute!" A voice rang out from the other side.

The door suddenly opened, and a disheveled Steiner appeared infront of them.

"Oh... oh um, hi! I... I wasn't expecting two girls, um, c-come on in..." Steiner gestured them in quickly and then dashed off into one of the many rooms in the house.

"Since when was Steiner uncomfortable with girls?" Erika heard Kay ask when she sat down in one of the many chairs in the great big living room. Erika looked around at the many bits and bobs, pictures and other things inside of the room.

"Well, he was always uncomfortable with girls, he was just more in the past." Erika explained, then laughed shortly.

"So, what can I help you with?" Steiner popped up again from another door, this time looking slightly better.

"Oh, we're actually friends with Alphonse." Erika started to speak.

"Friends... since when did Alphonse have girlfriends?" Steiner asked.

"Oh, um... actually, we're not his girlfriends, we're just his friends." Erika blushed.

"Right... so anyway, what can I help you with?" Steiner sat down opposite of them.

"Well, we're actually from the future. We came here though the Aethergate, one of your many inventions that you created with Alphonse's and Alphonse's father's help. We're stuck right now, but since you helped to build the gate system, we figured that you can help us out." Erika told him their story. He at first amazed, then his face melted into shock, and then into determination.

"Yeah, I can help you out. Now, where is he?" Steiner asked.

"About... six or so kilometers east of this place. I... I have it on the map here." Erika pulled up her holographic display, and showed Steiner the map.

"Yeah... I can do that. We can get there in about ten or so minutes." Steiner got up.

"Ten minutes? You got a car?" Erika asked him.

"Even better. Come along, I'll show you my baby." Steiner gestured for the two girls to follow him down into the garage.

Stopping at a steel door, Steiner pulled out a set of keys.

"Okay, it's unlocked." Steiner said after fumbling a bit.

"Welcome to my private lab." Steiner opened the door.

"Wow..." Erika was amazed at the sight she saw.

The garage was filled with many machines and unfinished tanks, some of them German, Some of them British, but the majority of the finished ones were modern machines... machines that wouldn't be built, much less conceived for a hundred or more years.

"You said he was just an engineer before the time of BFTA..." Kay walked up next to them.

"Not just an engineer, but a designer and a surgeon." Steiner said from the door.

"Now, let me show you what has been the pride of my life for the past two years." Steiner pulled them along.

"Wait... isn't that..."

"The Unfinished Aethergate?" Kay and Erika both said at the same time as they passed a unfinished ring surrounded by cables and computers.

"Yeah, it is." Steiner said quickly, and walked to the storage section.

"How big is this hangar..?" Kay huffed behind Erika.

"It's bigger on the inside... so I'm not sure. Perhaps infinite." Steiner laughed, and paused in front of a steel garage door.

"I-Infinite...?" Kay muttered to herself before quickly running up to Steiner.

Steiner pulled out a set of keys, and unlocked the steel door.

"Here you go." Steiner lifted the door open, and turned on the lights.

"Woah..."

"W-What kind of Tank Destroyer is that?"

"It's a Stridvagn 103D. Swedish main battle tank, actually." Steiner walked back into view.

"Stridvagn, and you made this? All by yourself?" Kay asked him.

"Yeah, I did... Took me two years to finish her. I actually just finished it a week ago." Steiner hopped onto the tank.

"Come on, let's go." Steiner gestured to the other two crew hatches.

"Right, let's do this." Steiner turned over the engine, filling the room with the roar of a gas turbine starting up.

"So... Erika you, you went to his house, and got him to help us...?" Alphonse asked Erika, who simply nodded in response.

"Well... why hasn't the universe collapsed yet?" Alphonse looked around. Nope, no rapid deconstruction of the universe... yet.

"That's because a little birdy told me that this is a secret worth holding onto. Besides, this probably already happened." Steiner explained.

"Well... anyway, seeing as you're here to re-" Alphonse was cut off by the sound of his pager beeping.

"You... you have a pager? Really?" Steiner asked.

"Just for notifications... hold on." Alphonse pulled up his terminal.

"S-Sir... a large formation of enemy troops are headed our way... and we have one of our guys in German High Command telling us that Hitler and the Inner Council was reported dead... they had ordered a sweep of the country, and now they're headed for us." Tobias' voice called through the intercom.

"What?" was all Alphonse could manage.

_German high command after them? It didn't make any sense. They weren't supposed to _be _here in the first place, so how could've they known?_

_This wasn't making any sense... no matter._

"Tobias!" Alphonse called back into the intercom.

"Ye-Yes sir?" Tobias sounded panicky. Well, anyone would if they had an entire panzer battalion storming down upon them.

"Get your men ready to mobilize. We're getting you out of here." Alphonse was quickly thinking, figuring out the best place to buy time for the guys to escape.

"But the Aethergate is broken..."

"Doesn't matter, I've got a way to make it work!" Alphonse cut Tobias off.

"But who knows where we could be headed for?" Tobias yelled back.

"Anywhere is better than here!" Alphonse yelled again, and cut off the connection.

"Right, we need to get Steiner to the gate quickly... according to our DRADIS sensors we have a big amount of tanks and other vehicles headed towards Quadrant 3 in sector F2."

"Got that Al, I'll head back to base. you need your full crew to aid you in battle, right?" Steiner looked at the man in front of him, his future commanding officer.

"Yes... that's right. We don't have a whole lot of time remaining, so we better hurry. Go!" Alphonse ran back to the _Valkyrie _and got on board.

"Don't worry, I got this handled!" Steiner saluted, and then got into his tank, rushing towards the base.

"Okay, we better hurry." Alphonse felt something fall down on him.

Alphonse looked up at the dark clouds... Strange, when did the sky have time to get cloudy?

"Alphonse!" Erika snapped him out of his revere.

"Got it, let's go!" Alphonse closed the commander's hatch, and the tank rolled off towards Sector F2.

The Cliffs.

**End of Act II Part 1**

**Act II Part 2**

The _Valkyrie _slowly rolled up the mountain road.

All was silent save for the soft beeping of the DRADIS inside of the tank, the crew wary of any sudden attacks.

Alphonse was craning his head left and right, up and behind him in order to spot any tanks DRADIS can't detect.

Erika was peering through the gunsights, trying to pick out any tanks in range as well.

Kay was also on the lookout, but she was concentrated on the winding path in front of her.

Erik was busy pulling rounds into dry storage, just in case they needed to fire quickly. He grasped a APCR shell just out of reach, and loaded it into the gun breech.

All was quiet, except for the beeping of DRADIS.

Alphonse stole a look across the DRADIS monitor. He could see a large part of the DRADIS readout was being blocked by the huge cliff face they were currently hugging.

That was a drawback of DRADIS. Since it used magnetic waveforms to detect mechanical devices like tanks and other machinery, the waves would be blocked by sufficiently dense objects.

Alphonse sighed, and adjusted the DRADIS waveform again to see if he could somehow bypass the cliff without drawing too much power from the reactor.

"No contacts in current sight range... do you want to stop here?" Kay radioed from her position.

Alphonse paused reconfiguring the DRADIS readout, and popped his head out of the tank.

Scanning the terrain, Alphonse could see that the _Valkyrie_ was currently in a very good position for hull down, and he could easily defend the road back to the camp from this area.

"Yeah, stop us here." Alphonse said back through the intercom.

"Copy."

The tank lurched forward as it decelerated, and the engine soon cut out after.

Alphonse pulled himself back inside of the tank.

Now that the _Valkyrie_ was running off battery power, Alphonse could hear his surroundings more clearly.

A distant rumble, a splash of rain, Alphonse knew that the weather was changing for the worse.

Turning back to the DRADIS console, he finished re-configuring the DRADIS to what he liked to nickname Short-Range mode.

The changes done, DRADIS returned to normal operation, with small beeps sounding through the cabin as the sensor systems complete each revolution.

Alphonse closed his eyes momentarily. _Perhaps the warning was a false alarm? _Alphonse thought to himself.

_No. If it was a false alarm, then there would be more radio chatter that the last reported transmission was a false... unless the base already got overrun._

Alphonse sat up.

"Damn..." Muttering to himself, he increased the input power of the DRADIS system. The lights inside of the cabin flickered lightly, then dimmed as DRADIS started to consume more power.

The sensor scans continued to read out nothing.

"Where the hell are you...?" Alphonse adjusted the DRADIS computers again, changing the mode to Long-Range.

Instantly, the computers pinged a warning.

"What...? You pick it up in LR but not in SR mode?" Alphonse said aloud.

"Pick up what?" Erika cocked her head towards Alphonse.

"The tank battalion... from DRADIS's best estimates they are about... 800 meters out. Why the hell can't I see them?" Alphonse poked his head out of the tank, scanning the area in front of him.

He looked down at the screen. 40 individual blips.

He looked back up at the hills. Nothing.

Alphonse turned his head down again to read the distance measurements. 1,000 meters? They went back?

No... they're still moving forward. What in god's name was causing this strange anomaly?

He stopped thinking when he heard a tree fall.

Snapping his head towards the source of the sound, he saw another tree, and then another tree, and then another tree fall down.

And then he heard the whine of the V12s.

From the top. From the east flank.

They were surrounded.

Without making any noise, Alphonse pulled the hatch and closed it, sealing the entrance to the sky.

"We've been ambushed. I have no idea what DRADIS is doing sending out false information, but we're surrounded. I think 15 tanks, the majority of them Tiger Hs." Alphonse said quietly.

"Can our armour block their shells?" Erik asked quickly.

"The ERA and the Aetherium plating should hold." Alphonse said back.

"Can you load the shells faster?" Alphonse turned to Erik.

"Probably can. I'll see if I can find more shells to slot into the dry storage." Erik stooped down and grabbed more shells from the floor.

"Erika, do you see them?" Alphonse asked his gunner.

"Yeah... just waiting on your signal to fire."

Alphonse then proceeded to turn to his DRADIS terminal. Swearing mentally in his head, he looked at the malfunctioning machine. Despite the distance readouts being glitched, Alphonse can still see from the fast approaching blips that he did not have much time.

"We have to get out of here quickly, retreat, and perform hit and run tactics on them. With luck we can probably hold off the spearhead long enough for Steiner to repair the gate and get the team out of here." Alphonse looked to the west, towards their only escape route.

"So what's the plan?" Kay's voice rang over the intercom.

"We get the hell out of dodge, and then heckle them as they pass C2."

"Waiting on your mark then." Kay responded.

"On my mark..." Alphonse peered at the DRADIS screen. The dots were getting ever so closer...

"Now."

"Fire!" Alphonse commanded, and the 105 millimeter cannon shot out an APCR shell, screeching into the darkened day.

The Tiger didn't have time to react before it erupted into a fireball, cooking off it's ammunition and creating a huge explosion which rocketed through the air.

"They know we're here." Alphonse said.

"Mobilizing now!" Kay yelled, and the engines whined as they came back to life.

"Go go go!" Alphonse cried out. The big 88 millimeter guns swiveling towards their tank.

The tank lurched backward as Kay pressed her entire weight on the accelerator pedal, forcing eight hundred horses into motion, and the engine whined and roared as the tank blasted out of it's hiding spot.

"They're onto us, here they come!" Alphonse heard the shots miss just behind them, impacting the ground in teeth-clattering shockwaves.

"Gun up!" Erik boomed over the commotion.

"Firing!" Erika pulled the trigger, sending another shell roaring out of the barrel. The shell hit it's mark, disabling another Tiger tank.

Kay swerved the bulk of the _Valkyrie_ to the right as more shells impacted just where the tank was.

"It's like they can't even aim..." Alphonse muttered to himself.

"Loaded!" Erik called out again.

"Firing!" Erika swiveled the turret towards the lead Tiger, knocking it out with a well aimed shot to the transmission.

"Reloading!" Alphonse heard the metallic clang of a spent shell impacting the turret basket.

"Come on..." Erik cursed to himself. He picked up a shell just as the tank was rocked by a big vibration.

"What the heck was that?" Erika turned around.

"Shell hit us. We're still moving, let's go." Alphonse said quickly.

"Round is loaded into the chamber!" Erik picked up another shell.

"Got him!"

"Keep up the good shooting Erika!" Alphonse turned forward, looking directly at the Tigers chasing them down the road.

"We got to lose them... Kay, go at max speed." Alphonse commanded.

"Got it! Let's see them chase us now." Kay pushed the tank to the limit as the tank sped down the path and into the valley.

"I think we lost them." Alphonse looked at the rapidly shrinking Tigers in the distance.

"Copy that." Kay turned the _Valkyrie_ right and back over the path where they escaped, this time on higher ground.

"Now we wait for them to come down this path." Erika said.

"Indeed. Now we wait." Alphonse nodded.

They didn't need to wait. DRADIS blipped a warning that six more tanks were approaching their position.

"Okay, let all of them pass and target the rearmost tank. Then work your way up." Alphonse peeked out of the turret, at the rapidly darkening sky and felt the howling winds.

It's raining?

Alphonse felt a splash, and another, and the world filled with raindrops.

"It's raining..." Alphonse muttered.

He closed the hatch. The last Tiger had just passed them.

"Fire when you're ready." Alphonse told Erika.

The cannon erupted into flames. Alphonse heard the sonic boom of an APCR shell going supersonic, and the explosion of a distant tank meeting it's end.

"Good hit." Alphonse looked at the burning tank, and the tank column stopping and turning their turrets.

"Ready." Erik slotted another shell into the breech.

Another tank exploded.

The shell casing landed with a thud on the floor. Erik pushed it aside. The inside, even with Enhanced Ventilation, still smelled heavily of gunpowder and propellant.

"Firing." Erika shot at another tank, this time igniting the tank's ammunition and causing it to erupt in a fireball. The shockwave from the tank's violent end hit them, rocking the tank gentilly.

"Locked." Erika said.

"They're onto us..." Alphonse looked at the tanks swerving their turrets towards them.

"We got to move. Now." Alphonse radioed Kay.

"Get us out of here. Sector A6 now, they're just coming onto the bend." Alphonse looked back at the burning wrecks.

Erika fired the cannon once more, taking down another Tiger tank.

"Eight tanks down... seven more to go." Alphonse looked at DRADIS.

The enemy tanks had moved again, and as Alphonse anticipated towards the bend and towards the bridge leading to the town.

"They have at least twenty more minutes of hard going until they hit the town." Erika said to Alphonse as the tank jumped into motion.

"We can make that longer." Alphonse heard something, like a distant rumble getting louder.

Alphonse looked up. The rain was intensifying, and there was the smell of electricity in the air.

"**WARNING, ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE DETECTED." **DRADIS beeped out.

"So that's why..." Alphonse rubbed his eyes in frustration.

"It's a thunderstorm... DRADIS can't work effectively in a thunderstorm..." Alphonse sighed.

He looked at the screen again. Indeed, there was a sizeable blot covering the road into the bend. Alphonse switched modes again. The blot didn't disappear entirely, but Alphonse could make out ghosts within the area. The tanks were still continuing up the road, but now their force was considerably weakened.

Now it was three to one. Nothing Alphonse hadn't fought up against in the VR simulator.

"We're here." Kay announced. The engine turned off, and Erika adjusted her sights.

Erik loaded a shell into the breech.

"Ready to fire." Erika said.

"Wait for my order." Alphonse looked at the small depression in front of them. Hopefully they could surprise the Tigers as they move past them, but even then they would be on the lookout.

He hoped that no one could spot him through the thick foliage that they were hiding in.

The last Tiger again approached their view, and this time Alphonse ordered something different to be done.

"They're in column formation... if we disable the front tank and the rear tank, we can box in the last guy." Alphonse explained.

"Got it. Firing on lead tank." Erika called out.

"Grabbing the next shot, get ready." Erik said.

"Copy."

The cannon fired, and the world went silent.

And then an explosion engulfed the lead Tiger in flames.

"Gun up." Erik finished loading the cannon, the spent shell at his feet.

"Firing." Erika locked onto the next target, and the tank rocked with the force of the 105 millimeter cannon firing it's APCR shell into the rearmost Tiger.

The Tiger stopped... and exploded as well. The last Tiger was making a move to engage them by turning it's frontal armour towards them, but Erika simply shot the tracks off.

"Do you want to finish them off?" Erika asked Alphonse.

"Jam their traverse and move us up Kay. I want to find out what happened." Alphonse replied.

"Copy." Erika fired the cannon at the shot trap of the Tiger, disabling it's traverse system. The crew of the Tiger apparently panicked, and they attempt to escape.

Kay moved up and blocked their way out.

"Right." Alphonse stepped out with a P90 in hand.

"Stop, you'll only die tired." Alphonse barked in German.

The tank crew raised their hands up, surrendering.

Alphonse looked at the panzer crew. Most of them were just young boys in their twenties.

"Good. Now tell me, what are your orders?" Alphonse questioned the group.

"We-we only have orders to go mobilize against a small group of rogue panzers that were discovered about three days ago. Once it was reported that the Fuhrer was dead... we moved immediately." The commander, a tall man in his late twenties shakily replied.

"The Fuhrer is dead?" Alphonse asked.

"From what we heard. Yes. Now are you going to let us go?" He asked hopefully.

Alphonse stared at the man. While he had the power to kill all of them... it just didn't feel right.

"Go. Do not reveal our position. Do not give a description of who we are, what we look like, and where we are. Now go." Alphonse commanded, and holstered his P90.

The panzer crew looked at each other, back to Alphonse, and then took off running for their lives.

Only their commander hung back long enough to say one last thing.

"If I ever find you again, I will help you, for sparing my life! If you find a panzer with a red cross on the side, that's me! I will help you, thank you!" He called out as he ran off with his crew.

Alphonse watched the rapidly disappearing men, and turned towards the crew.

"I couldn't kill them." Alphonse explained.

"I just couldn't kill them. They were just boys, joining the army for the the grand adventure of it all." Alphonse sighed, and looked up to the sky. The rain fell harder, darkening the skies.

It was just like what he had thought when he first joined the military all those years ago...

The wind howled.

The distant rumbles of thunder got louder.

"We have to move now Alphonse." Erika pulled him towards the tank.

Alphonse silently stole one last fleeting look at the immobilized Tiger.

The panzer crew closed the hatches, and moved on silently towards the bridge.

The rain was falling harder now, and Ryan found it hard to work effectively with all the rain and humidity hitting the sensitive components of the AetherGate.

"Need a hand?" asked a voice behind Steiner. Not turning around but instead focusing directly on the badly damaged circuit he was currently repairing, he replied with a single "thank you" at the wrench dangling in front of his head.

He took it, and turned up to see who was aiding him.

"No problem." replied the man. He looked to be quite young, in his twenties at the most.

Ryan looked at the man, who had turned away and made his way to rejoin his tank crew, which were standing together huddled around a hastily put together fire.

The man stepped into his tank, and started talking to the person on the other side.

Ryan, even with his amazingly good hearing, could only make out a few snippets of conversation as the machinery of the AetherGate finally powered up.

"... Taking heavy fire? What can we do? Copy, will move for defensive positioning... Copy, will provide covering fire as you retreat... thirty panzers? Wilco."

The man gestured to his panzer crew to join him in the Leopard, and they moved out, shouting orders for the rest of their battlegroup to prepare for the AetherGate's activation.

They were going to buy them some more time. Alphonse and his crew were battling their way across the plains, fighting to buy some more time from the approaching Third Heavy Panzer Division of the Third Reich.

"Fire at the nearest panzer, and keep moving!"

The Leopard rocked as it's 105 millimeter cannon shot out metal and death. The cannon clicked as the spent round rocked back into the breech.

The tank shook as an 88 shell found it's mark on the upper turret of the Leopard, bouncing off as the advanced Aetherian Composite armour repelled the shell from penetrating the crew cabin.

"Status!" Alphonse called out.

"Round didn't penetrate, we're still moving!" Kay yelled from her position. The intercom was damaged, and they had to communicate through the thundering sounds of machinery and cannon fire inside the tank.

"Round up!" From somewhere in the tank, Erik pulled out another APCR shell, and hefted the heavy round into position.

The tank rumbled down the hill, and crested the top, shells flying over the turret.

The distant sounds of thunder that he had heard were actually sounds of more 88 cannons firing and missing the Leopard. The rain continued beating down on the mortals, almost like it was intent on blinding them as they fought their way towards their camp, their sanctuary.

The cannons fired again, narrowly missing the Leopard, which turned slightly to allow faster tracking.

"Damnit..." Kay swore under her breath.

"What's wrong?" Alphonse turned towards the front of the tank, where Kay was furiously working the steering wheel and the pedals, pushing the _Valkyrie_ to her limit.

"Road's out, looks like it flooded due to the godamn rain pouring on us." Kay replied, turning the tank in a wide turn, showing more of the side.

The tank rocked as the Tigers hit the side armour, throwing Alphonse off balance.

"Well, keep us moving for as long as possible. Surely they'll run out of gas sometime." Alphonse turned towards the crew. Extruding an air of calm even though the situation turned helpless, Alphonse looked to see Erika and Erik working the gun like madmen, shooting out shell after shell.

"How many rounds do we have left?" Alphonse asked Erik, who had just finished loading another round into the breech.

"Nearly empty. Only 10 left." Erik covered his ears as the cannon fired again; he had lost his ear protection when the tank had been brutally hit by a direct hit from enemy artillery.

"It'll do." Alphonse turned back to the DRADIS screen. With most of the output obscured by the electrical disturbance of lightning and pent-up charge, it was proving to be little more than useless. He had to rely on his keen eyesight to see tanks, and with the rain pouring down and obscuring his sight, he had to pray to the powers that be that this was the last of the division, and not the _beginning._

The _Valkyrie_ passed a bend, pushing onwards past the flooded river and into a swampy area... and into twenty Tigers and Panthers, neatly lined up as if they were expecting him to arrive here.

"Evasive Maneuvers!" Alphonse called out as the tanks fired their cannons, filling the air with shrapnel and metal given flight.

The air seemed to be torn apart by the shockwaves of the 75s and the 88s firing simultaneously, like unholy lightning hitting the ground, it sent shockwaves into the ground and air that rattled Alphonse's teeth.

Most of the shots hit the tank, shaking the tank endlessly. Kay kept her iron grip on the steering wheel even while the tank rang like a church bell from all the shots harmlessly skidding off the improved armour.

"Get us the heck out of here!" Alphonse lurched as the _Valkyrie_ pulled a hard turn away from the panzer line, which had started their pursuit of the lone Leopard.

"Firing!" Erika had already destroyed two of the lead Tigers, and was training the gun on the third, which was trying desperately to escape Erika's lightning fast trigger finger.

The shot hit home, blowing the unfortunate souls sky-high.

The rumbling of distant artillery firing their shells, like the beating of Thor's mighty hammer, sent waves of fear into Alphonse's hearts as the first of the death from the heavens above hit the ground in front of him, missing the tank barely. The shockwaves rocked the tank, and sent a couple of pieces of shrapnel flying into the air, hitting the tank's armour and dinging it ever so slightly.

The situation was desperate. Low on ammunition (Last time Alphonse checked they only had four more shells left) and surrounded by hell, it would take an act of god to rescue the beleaguered panzer team.

A Panther exploded right next to the Leopard, and Alphonse jumped.

"Was that us?" Alphonse asked Erika, who was shaking her head.

"Then who the hell...?" Alphonse turned to the right, and saw his salvation.

"Giving you covering fire Alphonse, get the hell out of dodge!" Came the reply he was waiting for.

Brian and his crew had finally made it to Alphonse's positon, and now like an Angel slaying the legions of hell, was diving himself headfirst into the approaching line of tanks.

"Copy!" Alphonse felt the tank shake as Erika fired the last shell into a flanking Panther, causing it to erupt in flames.

"Come back in one piece!" Alphonse radioed back to Brian, who was being swarmed with Tigers and Panthers. The entire frontal plate of his Leopard was lit up in fire as the armour held against the unforgiving onslaught of the Nazis.

"I will! See you on the other side!" Brian radioed back. His voice filled with anger and desperation and panic.

Alphonse turned forward towards the bridge Brian and his crew had powered through. He turned back, but Brian was nowhere to be seen.

"Alphonse. It's okay, he'll be back." Erika turned towards the Titan, who was lost in thought.

Alphonse just silently nodded.


End file.
